Finding the Mole and Choosing the Apple: Executive Function Challenges in Children with Developmental Language...

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Developmental Neuroscience
• Speech-Language Pathology

Background:

• Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is often associated with cognitive deficits like working memory (WM) and sustained attention (SA).
• These cognitive aspects are critical for language development but are understudied in preschoolers with DLD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate WM and SA in Chilean preschoolers with DLD compared to typically developing (TD) peers.
• To utilize nonverbal tasks from the Child Neuropsychological Evaluation Test (TENI) for assessment.

Main Methods:

• Thirty preschoolers with DLD and 30 TD peers (aged 4-4 years 11 months) participated.
• Nonverbal tasks assessing WM ('Torpo the Clumsy Mole') and SA ('Duno and the Worms') were administered.
• Accuracy and reaction times were measured for both cognitive tasks.

Main Results:

• Children with DLD exhibited significantly lower accuracy in working memory tasks.
• Preschoolers with DLD also showed poorer accuracy in sustained attention tasks.
• Despite accuracy deficits, children with DLD had faster reaction times on the sustained attention task.

Conclusions:

• Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) involves cognitive deficits beyond language, specifically in WM and SA.
• Early identification of these executive function differences is vital for a comprehensive understanding of DLD.
• Findings underscore the link between executive functions and language development in early childhood.